Yato
Yato (夜ト) is the main protagonist of Noragami. He is a god that is unknown to people. His current shinki and guidepost is Yukine, a silver katana. Appearance Yato appears to be a young man, with shaggy purple-black hair that reaches to his neck, and bright, striking blue eyes. He is often seen wearing a sweater jersey and track pants, and an old white bandana/cloth around his neck, which he describes as 'fluffy fluff' (fuwa fuwa). He also wears a pair of brown knee-length boots. When imagining his future as a popular god, Yato wears a red cape and a golden crown, and is often seen with a pink fan within his imagination. In the distant past, Yato tied his hair up to a short ponytail and wore a dark kimono. In 39 Yato has bought a new jersey that has the same design which was bought thanks to Kazuma's money. In Chapter 40, Yato ties his hair like in the past and is wearing his new jersey. Personality Yato is often very playful and sneaky, doing silly and childish things such as buying good luck items that are obviously a scam, giving Yukine a childish jacket, and other things. He is very determined to become more popular as a god, often either placing his cell phone number everywhere or doing a job. However he also slacks off occasionally. There are also times, however, when Yato appears very serious and mysterious, like when he meets with Nora or other certain situations. Yato can be crude and unpredictable, although it is hinted that he can also be a cruel and merciless person. This is strongly implied by Kofuku, who introduces the rumor that he once killed a Shinki and several humans (according to Daikoku, this happened a long time ago, where the rule was "kill or be killed."). These actions might have been motivated by his need to at least exist in people's memories. He answers people's prayers and demands money in return for his help (5 yen, the amount that is traditionally placed in a shrine before praying). He graffitis his cellphone number in various places, but it only appears to people who are in desperate need of his aid. Yato is seen to have a very low tolerance for weak spirited people, and if they want to commit suicide he has little motivation to help them. This is mostly because shinki like Yukine did not experience a full human life, and because they've died from an accident, killing them at a young state.This low tolerance usually causes those around him to become upset. Yato also appears very materialistic when it comes to money, when Hiyori mentions her job request he claims he'll definitely do it because he intends to keep her money and holds his bottle full of coins. Yato will often indulge in fantasies of himself being a very successful god with more followers than any other god and lots of shrine maidens at his fingertips. Despite his aloof and often idiotic personality, Yato is a god that is seen to be quite wise and very serious when the situations requires it. It is shown that in the past, when he was more like a god of calamity (Magatsukami) than he is now, he seems to have a much more serious, merciless and cruel personality. However, his personality changed for the better through Sakura's influence. He also used to be much stronger in the past, according to Rabō. In Chapter 40, Fujisaki Kouto revealed that Yato is a "God of Depravity," meaning that Yato only knows how to steal and not to give, and that those people around him will suffer terribly. Chronology Manga One day, a girl named Mutsumi calls him as a last-ditch effort when she sees his number scrawled on the wall of a toilet cubicle. Desperate, she begs him to stop her classmates from bullying her. He and his Shinki, Tomone, destroy the phantom,(a result of her fellow classmates' anxiety due to the approaching exams), that had appeared outside the school, but this does not stop the bullying. Mutsumi, in total anger and sadness, yells at Yato why she is still being bullied. Yato leaves angrily that Mutsumi is not pleased about what Yato and Tomone have done. Tomone then pleads Yato to help her again. While Mutsumi is still depressed, beginning to walk up the stairs back to her classroom, Yato appears on the top of the stairs in front of her. He then severs her ties with her classmates, thus making her an outsider, which allows her to start a new relationship with her peers. A Housecat, A Stray God and A Tail Mutsumi is sitting in her classroom and is being bullied by her classmates, when she sees a "phantom" outside her classroom window. She prays to God to save her. Yato responds by tossing and catching a 5 yen coin, and then destroys the phantom with Tomone, his Shinki (also called a Regalia, or a Divine Weapon). Soon after, Tomone decides to quit and pleads him to release her, crying and saying she does not want him to be her Master because of his sweaty hands. Finally, Yato releases her and she immediately lights up, skipping away in happiness. After writing his cellphone number on a wall in a park, he eventually gets a call about "Milord" being missing. It turns out that this call was in fact pertaining to a missing cat named "Milord." Yato finds the lost cat in the middle of the road and chases it, where he is pushed out of the way of a bus by Iki Hiyori. After Hiyori awakens in her family's hospital and spends the night, she is awoken by the voices of phantoms, and finds Yato in her bed. She retreats with cat-like reflexes. After telling her that she is the first human to ever save him, Yato introduces himself as a god. The two talk, and Yato leaves via the window. A few days later, Yato uses catnip to find Milord, and is then attacked by a phantom. Hiyori appears, and runs away with Yato in tow. After Hiyori attacks the phantom, and the two manage to lose it, Yato points behind her (at her "tail") and tells Hiyori that her soul has leaked out. Hiyori collapses back into her body. Yato returns Milord to his home and carries Hiyori. After she wakes up and calls Yato a pervert, he explains about her being stuck in between the Far Shore (in human terms, the afterlife) and the Near Shore (where the living reside). Hiyori asks for his help, seeing as he is a god, and he holds up five fingers and requests money in return. Hiyori mistakes the cost for 50,000 yen, and 500,000 yen, but Yato tells her the correct amount; 5 yen. Snow-like Yato gets a call from Hiyori, who doubts his claims about him being a god because he has yet to help her, and he suddenly appears next to her, perching on the nearby railing, asking her how he could do that if he weren't a god. He then tells her that he cannot do anything without a Shinki. He gets a call from someone asking for help (it turns out to be cleaning the mold from a bathroom wall) and disappears. Hiyori then takes it upon herself to find a Shinki for him. After Yato gets yet another call from Hiyori, who claims to have found a Shinki, he yet again appears before her only to find that the so-called Shinki she had found was a bona-fide phantom. Hiyori then tries to attack it but is stopped by Yato, who pulls on her "tail". Yato is then bitten by the phantom, and he temporarily injures the phantom and it lets go of his arm. While the phantom is readjusting, Yato and Hiyori quickly retreat. Yato then prevents Hiyori from touching his injury, explaining that his arm has been "blighted," which is a type of defilement that spreads unless it is exorcised or cleansed. Yato also explains that Hiyori's "tail" is not a tail, but a lifeline that connects her physical and ethereal forms.The phantom soon finds the two again as they then retreat once more. Yato suddenly stops dead in his tracks because he found an uncorrupted spirit. He claims it as his Shinki, and it transforms into its weapon form, a katana. Yato then sees a flashback of the spirit's memories and stands still on the top of a power pole, seemingly in shock, and then starts to collapse. He is eaten by the phantom, katana in hand. Hiyori shouts his name and Yato, inside the phantom, opens his eyes and chants. He kills the phantom, lands on power lines, and then falls to the ground. He lays on the ground for a moment, crying. Later, he is seen cleansing his hand with the katana propped up beside him. He tells Hiyori that the katana's name is, as a human, Yuki, and less formally, Yukine, and as a weapon, Sekki. The katana then reverts to his human form, a teenage boy with blond hair and orange eyes. As Yuki is cold, Yato offers him his jersey top, but the Shinki rejects it, stating that it reeks of sweat. This leaves Yato standing in a state of shock with a blank look on his face. Bidden Calamity As Yukine tries to adjust to his role as Yato's Shinki, he is scolded by Yato over allegedly having dirty thoughts about Hiyori, explaining that they share the same mind and body, and that indecent thoughts 'sting' him. Later, the three are summoned by the God of Learning, Lord Tenjin, who has taken on Tomone, now named Mayu as one of his new Shinki. Tenjin commissions Yato to take care of some phantoms that have appeared near a railway track. Whilst fighting the phantoms, the three encounter a 'storm', which Yato and Yukine manage to destroy before it compels a schoolboy to walk into the path of a train. Where Happiness Lies Yato takes Hiyori and Yukine to meet a fellow god named Kofuku and her Regalia, Daikoku. In the middle of their talk, Yato is summoned by a suicidal office worker named Yusuke Urasawa , whom he accidentally knocks off the top of a building in the process. On the way down, Yusuke explains how his luck and fortune went downhill in pursuit of love for a girl, who turns out to be Kofuku, revealed to be a Binbougami (God of Poverty) who causes bad luck and misfortune to those around her. Yato uses Yukine to sever Yusuke's ties and memories to Kofuku, before ensuring he lands safely. After Yato collects his payment, Kofuku tells Hiyori that Yato had once killed before. Later, as Yato tells Hiyori to go to Kofuku and Daikoku should anything happen to him, Yukine encounters a strange girl, who is revealed to be Nora, one of Yato's Shinki. Relationships Hiyori Hiyori and Yato share a close bond, and throughout the series have gotten closer. Yato cares for her greatly, and when being told that cutting his ties with her could solve her problem, he is reluctant, but it appears he is willing to do it to help her, only for Hiyori to refuse. Despite the fact Yato should be helping Hiyori with her soul leaking issue, Hiyori also helps Yato out on more than one occasion. Romantic feelings have been hinted between the two, but mainly from Yato (both in the manga and anime). In the manga, it is also seen during his and Ebisu's encounter with Izanami that his image of Izanami is Hiyori, while Ebisu views the woman as someone else. He then says that Izanami is seen differently by each person, taking the form of the person they're most comfortable with. There has also been progression with Yato's affections towards her due to the fact that instead of dreaming about having a big shrine and a handful of maidens to serve him, he dreams about Hiyori saving him and being his "goddess." After receiving his small shrine from Hiyori, there he vowed, albeit in a state of inebriation, that he will make Hiyori the happiest girl in the world. *Yukine When first introduced, Yukine is rather cold towards Yato, and he seems to enjoy putting Yato down. As Yukine continues to sting Yato and cause problems for him, he refuses to get rid of Yukine and puts up with the pain, until Daikoku steps in to punish Yukine. After this, Yukine becomes less cold towards Yato, showing more loyalty and care for his master. However, the two are still known to have small fights because of some misunderstandings that includes Nora and not telling about his real name. In the end, Yukine still lights the way up that Yato is able to become a God of Fortune instead of being a God of Calamity. *Nora Yato is one of the many gods who have made Nora their shinki, calling her Hiiro/Hiki only when necessary. They also have the same "father", whom Yato has served in his early years. It is not known if Yato is the first god to claim her as shinki, but it shown in the manga that the two have long been together since Yato was still a child. They have killed many people and shinki before, and Nora was also the shinki Yato used in killing the "ma" clan of shinki claimed by Bishamonten. Later on, Yato severs his ties with her. *Bishamonten Having a hate for Yato and seeking revenge for Yato killing her Shinki's. She has a deep hatred and wants to kill him. She has spent decades hunting him, desiring to end him and anyone who happens to be acquainted with him. Her hatred of him drives her to be reckless and rash. However, soon she reveals that the cause of her hatred toward Yato is that such an unknown God like him saved her life twice and she feels guilty for not being able to save two of her Shinki clans. * Kofuku Although submitting her as a girlfriend in the beginning, Yato doesn't have any serious affairs with Kofuku. They seem to have deep friendship as they do know and trust each other for a long time. Especially when the Bubble Era came in. Moreover, Yato once saved both Kofuku and Daikoku. * Daikoku He can be a little rough to Yato when laying a hand on Kofuku or when Yato is crashing over at their house. Sometimes calling him "Mom" by Yato and ordering him around, he is also a reliable person like when helping Yato to make two other shinkis to attend Yukine's purification ceremony. He didn't hesitate that the ceremony might fail. Also during the old times in Chapter 42, by the time Kofuku claimed another shinki named "Daigo" meaning "to protect" which came from Daikoku to make him happy for having or raising his own son; nevertheless, he can't bear to lie in his so-called son about that the truth. So, Kofuku ended up releasing Daigo; thus making thigs worse, Daikoku ended up lighting Kofuku. Upon hearing a rumor from Kazuma, he approached the God and asked to sever his ties between him and his memories with Daigo. * Sakura Sakura was Yato's first true shinki. Yato first met Sakura under a cherry blossom tree when she ask Yato to give her a name. Their short relationship was a happy and life-changing experience for Yato. Sakura showed the young Yato a different path to life than the one given by his father. Yato's "name", goal to become a God of Fortune and current personality is because of his time with Sakura. Yato still mourns her death every spring when the cherry blossom tree's bloom. Skills & Abilities Rend (Zan): Using his Shinki, Yato is able to use this ability to exorcise and destroy phantoms. This ability is first seen when Yato uses Tomone to destroy the phantom outside Mutsumi's school. Teleportation: This ability is used by Yato in order to get from job to job more quickly. He has also used this ability to reach Hiyori quickly when she calls him. Two notable examples of this ability are when she expresses her doubt of his godhood, and when she claims to have found a Shinki. Severance (Zetsu): Yato, using his Shinki, has the ability to sever the ties of people, be it with other humans, gods, or specific memories in general. It has been implied that he specializes in this ability. Trivia *It is revealed that Yato's (夜ト) real name is actually Yaboku (夜卜). Yaboku contains the kanji Ya (夜 Night) and Boku (卜 Divine). Sakura mistakenly read 卜 as the katakana to(ト) because of the similarities thus giving him his alias Yato. *Yato's expressions and portrayal often mimic that of a cat. His pupils are also shown as slit much of the time. This is probably a play on the fact that he is a stray god, similar to a stray cat, which explains the title "Noragami" (nora = stray, gami= god). This supports the entire cat theme of the series. * His exact age is unknown, however historical references in flashback chapters date the earliest ones to the Heian era, which would make Yato at least 1000 years old. * Yato's voice actor, Hiroshi Kamiya voices a character from Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan), Levi Ackerman. Further Information Yato was voted top husbando in the GoBoiano: Best Husbando and Waifu tournament of 2014 animes. Category:Characters Category:Male Category:God